As the monsoon is around two months away, former corporator from Vashi and chairperson of NMMC’s Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC), Divya Vaibhaw Gaikwad met the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and raised the cleanliness issues of holding ponds in the city. She drew Pawar’s attention to the decreasing capacity of holding ponds to store rainwater during the monsoon.
Ajit Pawar assured help and asked the Manisha Mhaiskar, Principal Secretary Environment and Climate Change Department to take up the matter in the next Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) meeting.
Earlier, the NMMC had shown inability to remove silt from the holding ponds as some of the ponds have mangroves and it was not possible to remove sludge. Thus, the civic body sought MCZMA permission to clean the ponds. Following this, MCZMA had instructed the civic body to submit a proposal after conducting a detailed study.
Now, the civic body submitted a detailed report on cleaning of 11 holding ponds of the city without damaging the mangroves to MCZMA. The detailed report was prepared by IIT Bombay and Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON).
Holding ponds at various places in the city provides protection to the city by storing rainwater during the monsoon season. However, the capacity of these holding ponds has been reduced due to sludge accumulations, and in the event of heavy rainfall and high tide, there is a possibility of waterlogging in many parts of the city.
For the last couple of years, several areas in the city faced water logging during heavy rainfall in the monsoon. And the reason was the decreased in water storage level of holding ponds. Gaikwad said that city holding ponds have not been cleaned for more than 12 years.
She added that deputy CM Pawar assured help and asked the principal secretary of Environment and Climate Change Department to take up the matter in MCZMA meeting. “Principal Secretary Mhaiskar has assured to take the NMMC proposal to the April 2022 meeting,” said Gaikwad.
